Hey yall! Summer is here!

WOW its almost July!!  This summer is flying by.

The other day I knelt down on the ground to work and here runs my crazy little goat who is now named Dennis the menace!! LOL jumped on my back and stood there.  He is so much fun!!  Now any time I sit on ground or work he comes running and wants piggy back rides!!  HAHA!!

We enjoyed some of our fresh berries in a nice strawberry shortcake cup I made for market.  Had to make a couple for us to try.

and here's Dennis again! 

Made some fresh cool cucumber soup!  This is good on a hot day with homemade bread.  A bit of fresh dill, garlic, onions, sour cream, and yummy!

I made a batch of coleslaw and had to take a pic of the colors!  so pretty!  Love homemade slaw, usually I leave it in slivers but we had company coming for dinner and I thought so everyone can enjoy it I put it thru the food processor to grind it a bit.  Still yummy!!

Also made some cilantro lime sauce for pork tacos, just pulse mayo, sour cream, fresh cilantro, fresh parsley,  juice from 3 limes, a couple cloves of fresh garlic and a touch of salt and pepper and one jalapeno pepper for a bit of heat.

Heres my boy!  Appy  who turned 30 in april.  I have had the guy in my life for 24 years and just love him to pieces.  He is so beautiful and even though is blind he gets around great. 

Curly and Maybelle alpacas.  I have them at my farm now, wont go into details but going thru a divorce and the x is being quite a snot and only "let" me have these 2 alpacas and I had to fight for them but that's ok I have them at least.

FINALLY!  My honey cinnamon graham crackers are back!!  I have been out for a few weeks but had a chance to make them and will hopefully every week again.  Theres just too many things I want to make and not enough time to make them!! LOL

And another with Dennis!!

Maybelle is such a cutie pie! 

I am using up some stash of supplies I have and made these t shirt scarves, they are fun and have been selling at market

And heres the other boy.  Baby my blind little goat.  He is such a sweetheart.  He was jumping around yesterday and acting crazy!  Guess Dennis is rubbing off on him a bit! LOL  They both just love to be held and petted, glad I got them so young. 

Life is crazy as we are in full market mode now. I have  been doing a bit of painting also making signs of pallet boards, just need to go get pallets I had a good supply of them but they are at the xs house and I am positive I wont get them so will be on the lookout for more!!  People are making all kinds of things out of pallets so they are scarce.  Great recycling ideas though. 

Hope yall have a wonderful weekend I will be back soon with more things to share. 

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

More Alpacas!!

Ok I think we are really addicted to these fun precious animals!!  They are just adorable!!
So while surfing on the internet I came across a farm nearby that was decreasing their herd, texted them and after going back and forth decided to go take a look and see what they had available.  WELLLLLLLLLLLLLL we went out and came home with 4 more!! 

So this pretty gal is Maybelle, and as you can see she was the challenge.  The whole way from barn to our trailer she would get up and then drop back down and lay down.  up down up down slowly we managed with 4 of us get her loaded.

The dark brown one up front is Truffles, then Maybelle and then in back is mommy Silky and her baby 8 mo old Penelope (penny) and oh what a little doll she is!  They are in with the other 2 gals we got last year, Angel and Becca.

Everyone is fitting in nicely and only 2 months and they can be mated.  They boys are certainly ready they went crazy when we unloaded the new girls. 

They tried climbing the fence panels and as you can see they are pretty tall, quite determined little stinkers.

This is Angel she is such a sweet girl but she definitely rules the barnyard!!  She does not like dogs and will chase after them, and shes pretty tough on the boys when its feeding time, I have to put 3 different feeders around or she will chase everyone out. Such personalities!! 

Heres another pallet sign I painted.  Love daisys and sunflowers and next I am doing some dog ones. 

Good Grief just not enough hours in the day! And with spring almost here its going to be planting time.  The plastic on my greenhouse is destroyed in all the winds we get so that needs to be fixed or it would be full of starters right now. 

 Mocha cookies topped with chocolate swirls  yummy yummy!!

And another new recipe gluten free chocolate chip cookies that  I added some homemade salted caramel to the batter.  Oh wow!!  These are really good and I usually don't like the gluten free recipes.  Its a textural thing with me they seem to have a gritty texture and I don't like that but with these there is coconut flour, and rice flour mix and I am impressed!!  Good recipe I will make again and again!!!

Have a wonderful restful sunday!!

Be back soon!

Hugs

Darlene

LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Hodge Podge today

Today is just that a hodge podge of things I thought I would share with you.  Heres my little guy sticking his tongue out at mommy!  LOL

ANd this was last week he was sitting in the sunshine waiting for mommy to go to work. 

 

Heres Maverick one of the alpacas.  He is such a cutie pie and of all of them hes the loner, always out exploring around the farm. 

My Curly boy is getting his favo treat carrots!! 

This was a new experiment orange creamsicle loaf with a vanilla orange glaze.  YUMMY!! yummy just like drinking the beloved childhood favo of mine orange n cream.  We would get it in a large frosted mug at Cracker Barrel restaurants. 

And a pic of my tables at winter market. 

My quick bread loaves and some ciabatta sandwich.

This week I made cinnamon chip biscotti sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, fudge espresso chocolate cookies, chocolate brownies with caramel and chocolate krispies, my almond glazed pistachio bread, blueberry lemon buttermilk bread, orange hazelnut cake and for soups I did a delish spring pea and potato soup with fresh mint parsley and thyme and believe me I cannot stand peas!! never have ate them, even as a kid when my mom put them in soups and casseroles I would dig them out and sneak to one of our dogs under the table. LOL but let me say this.....I tried the soup which as you know I have to do quality assurance on things, and sampled it and oh my good grief!!! This stuff is delish!!!!  LOVE it!  but it also has some shredded carrot and german butter potatoes fresh herbs including mint, thyme, and parsley.    The other soup that is a winner winner in my book is white cheddar chunky vegetable with potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, and with fresh thyme, rosemary and parsley.  Also since I got extra carrots this week I made some of my gingered carrot hummus!!  Once again I never used to eat those nasty little chick peas but in my chunky hummus I love it!! who would think!!  LOL

Hope yall have a wonderful weekend!!  Be back soon!

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~

Well we are in another blizzard storm watch!  Its been snowing all morning and we are supposed to get anywhere from 6-10 inches today thru tomorrow night.  ITs feb we usually get a storm in feb or two so nothing out of the ordinary here.  The wind is strong and its cold!!  BRRRR!! 
Spring is coming!  Cant wait!! spring time means babies!! baby chicks and who knows what else we will have.  LOL

I made a batch of lavender goats milk soap with some shea butter mixed in.  Smells so yummy!!

Letting it dry out before packaging for market.  I want to try some rosemary citrus and maybe lemongrass.

My lavender shortbread cookies!!  SO yummy and smell so nice!!

These are my espresso cream filled espresso cookie pies!!  These are a big hit at market with espresso powder in the cookie and in the cream filling.  Nice jolt to get the day going~ LOL  I am sipping on a cup of vanilla cappacino right now! yumm!!

So thought I would share what we did this summer.  My x has an old smoker house on the property, they used to smoke whole hogs there back in the day, one of the sections of garage was actually a butcher shop.  So we decided to get some meats and try it out.

We bought, chicken legs, whole pork loins, ribs, beef roasts, beef ribs and pork butts. 

This is the ribs just out of the smoker, we cut up onions, and fresh garlic and our mix of a bbq rub.  OH these were the best!!!  We did do some marinade on the chicken and the roasts using apple juice, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, and some dried herbs.  WOW! it was sooo good, we kept checking on it and added wood, smoked chips, and charcoal.  Started at 8am and were finished in time for supper around 7pm.  It was so delish, we had suppers all week from this and gave some to daughter in law and her family and a friend.  We even did it 2 more times a month later.  Its pretty large so kind of a waste to do just a little.

Well I am off to work on some canvas paintings I am doing, well altering a bit too!  will share pics as soon as they are done and ready to sell.

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY YALL!!

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Hey yall!! WOW we are in a thaw right now, go from 8 degrees this am to 50 tomorrow!!  Believe me I am not complaining!!  I am so over winter and snow!  And it has been a very mild winter here too!! but ready for spring and to get out and dig in the dirt and play!! 

Thought I would share a few pics of what I am making.  We are in winter market in South Haven and that is every sat from 10-2 at the Church Of Epiphany on Erie street.  We do get a good attendance and have something for everyone.  Here is a pic of my Grandma Rose's chocolate swirl babka!!  Oh my it smells heavenly and is so yummy!  Babka is one of my favo sweet yeast breads and with cinnamon and chocolate.... what more needs to be said!  It's delish!

Along with another favo of mine is my chocolate espresso coconut biscotti!!  It has espresso chocolate chips, coconut, coconut liquor'!!  YUMMY also! 

These were an experiment, love making new things!!  I made a tortilla soup and while cutting up all the veggies I roasted some extra for these taco crostadas topped with queso cheese. 

After baking them I made a cilantro lime sauce to give it a bit of punch!! Fresh cilantro, fresh lime zest and juice, sour cream, fresh jalapeno, and some salt and olive oil and oh my!! A customer said he could drink the sauce it was so good!  HMMMM maybe I should make some sauces to sell at market huh!!

And here's a pic this fall of my sweet Rosie May!!  She is such a doll baby, one day last summer I was wore out from working many hours and just beat I sat down against a bale of hay in the barn and she laid down next to me, the next thing I knew it was 2 hours later and she was sleeping with her head on my lap.  We both took a nice nap!! 

These are my famous and oh so popular spinach n cheese crostadas, I have to make them every week people love them!!

An Mr Boopie Woopie Boo!!  Barney aka Billy playing last summer with a new toy mommy bought him.  He loves them so much but they only last a few minutes, like so many others he is a destroyer of toys! LOL (their daddy gets mad but I love to watch my boys play and have fun for a few minutes with new toys!! LOL )

This is JAX, hes a doll baby, not used to one so small but he fits right in with everyone else and runs around the chickens, which they are all bigger than him so its funny. 

Mr Boss, aka Mr Naughty pants! LOL still a little doll!!  Love these guys!!

And Bruno!! he's a honey bunny!!  Look at that sweet face! 

Oh my kiddos!!  they are all little angels!!

And the alpacas are doing good they are getting along just fine on the farm.  I will take pics of them and post them soon.  It's funny of all the things I get them stinkers they only and I mean only will eat fresh carrots!!  I buy them organic carrots when I get my produce for market and they love them!! 

Hope you have a great night I will be back soon!! 

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~